Heart's Flight began as a simple leaping figure. As I worked on it, a series of dark dreams took over the design. When I finished, looking at it made me viscerally uncomfortable. Over time, I've come to embrace it as part of my story.

The piece explores the cycle of painful relationships — specifically the pattern around love that overwhelms rather than nourishes.

The woman throws a heart. But the heart is also a lure — love bombing, an intense show of affection used to draw someone in. The lovebirds in the barbed wire cage are completely enamored, oblivious to the trap because they're inside it. Faces of pain and anger are embedded in the torso: past trauma as the foundation the bond is built on. A scorpion, meticulously crafted with pinchers on each leg, signals a capacity for harm she carries within.

The Swarovski crystal pupils shared by the woman and the birds suggest a mirrored experience — all caught in the same cycle, all willing participants.

Ultimately, Heart's Flight is about the emotional cost of misunderstood love, and what it takes to break free from the patterns it creates.

67”h x 42”w x 5”d: hard drive platter, motherboard, barbed wire, hard drive actuator wire, platter spacer rings, Swarovski crystals.